Government grants are available to help with the cost of installing wood-burning (biomass) stoves and boilers. You can receive up to £600 towards the installation cost of a stove, and £1,500 towards the installation cost of a boiler. Click here for more details
Installation costs: Room heaters normally cost around £3,000 installed. The cost for boilers depends on your choice of system; a typical 15kW (average size required for a three-bedroom semi detached house) pellet boiler costs around £5,000 - £11,000 installed, including the cost of the flue and commissioning. A manual log feed system of the same size is slightly cheaper. 
To get an exact quote on a wood-burning stove or boiler system, follow this link
Running costs and savings: unlike other renewable energy systems, with wood-burning (biomass) boilers you need to pay for the cost of fuel. Fuel costs generally depend on the distance you are from your supplier and whether you can buy large quantities. Given this and the complexity of electricity and gas tariffs it is difficult to say for certain how much you will save on fuel costs. The Energy Saving Trust quotes savings on fuel costs of up to £200 per year, a figure which should increase as gas and electricity prices go up.
The big saving is in carbon dioxide emissions however. Because it uses renewable fuel, the carbon dioxide emissions from wood-burning boilers are far lower than using gas or oil central heating. The Energy Saving Trust estimates that by using one of these systems you prevent up to 8 tonnes of CO2 per year going into the atmosphere. This really is one of the biggest steps you can take to reduce your family's carbon emissions.
